Follow the crazy adventures of an Alabama cyclist taking on the Race Across America in 2015.

2008 Memphis Grand Prix – Time Trial

The details:I spent the afternoon relaxing in the hotel lobby and then working to get my brand new clip-on TT bars mounted on my bike. Philip and Brent helped a lot to get my position right. Thanks guys! Philip, Jacob, and I all decided to bike over to the start/finish area since it was only 6 miles from our hotel. My legs were feeling pretty heavy when we stepped up the speed, but I was really loving the new TT bars. I felt comfortable AND I felt like I had some good leverage on the bars so that I could power through smaller hills.

The course was a closed road that paralleled an active set of railroad tracks. The course was out/back 4 miles total. We came into the course before anyone started and got a chance to ride it two and a half times. I liked the course and new that you had to save some energy for after the turnaround when you would be battling back up a small grade into a decent headwind. My power meter helped me keep from going out too hard, and it helped me keep from panicking on the way back in when I wasn’t going very fast to realize that it was because of the grade and headwind – NOT because I was just going slow. I was pleased that my time was about 6 seconds improved from similar TT’s. Also, check out how low my average heart rate was and yet how high the average power was. Normally I’d be freaking out b/c my HR was so low, but because I knew I was putting out the watts to maintain a descent speed I was able to keep pushing.

Power spike on the first small riser. I saved some energy after the start to kick it hard here to keep my speed up.